GMA not yet off the hook

Despite the Supreme Court decision to drop the P366-million plunder complaint against former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and ordering her immediate release from hospital detention, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales is unperturbed. While Morales expressed dismay over the ruling, she was optimistic that Arroyo, now a Pampanga congresswoman, is not yet of the hook, stressing that there are lots of options to send her to jail. She declined to elaborate. Morales added that Ombudsman investigators and prosecutors are finalizing their preliminary investigation on the same case. She stressed that a case under preliminary probe cannot be considered a double jeopardy because it covers different years from 2004 to 2008 involving some P57 million. The case against the former President which was dropped by the SC consisted of personally using some P366 million in PCSO funds intended for charity and intelligence for the years 2009 to 2010. In a hastily called press [...]